Advantages of soft proofing

Published on June 13, 2005.

1. Eliminates problems and costs of hard proofing. "We don't have time to go back and make sure everyone sends in their hard proofs now, but that doesn't mean we don't feel bad about it," said Rich Zweiback, corporate director of manufacturing at Lebhar-Friedman.

2. Moves closer to a fully automated process. "This is the last step to having a fully digital work flow, which means a fully automated work flow gets even closer," said Bill Amstutz, senior VP-operations at CMP Media. "You'll always need people to watch over everything, of course, but soft proofing will bring full automation that much closer."

3. Cuts down on the time spent dealing with printers and ad agencies. "Soft proofing will certainly help eliminate a lot of dickering," Zweiback said. "Once there's a standard and we all know we're looking at the same thing onscreen, a lot of conversations will be much shorter."